Every fall since 2007, undergraduates at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) have submitted proposals for Undergraduate Research Scholar Awards. In 2010, WFM Saheli Nath was one of 46 students who received $500 each for project-related expenses for their research proposals. The students’ faculty sponsors received $300 apiece, also for project-related expenses.
I will be the faculty sponsor for WFM Saheli Nath's research on chess and self-esteem, to be completed in the spring of 2011. Nath is the third student to earn an Undergraduate Research Scholar Award for chess-related research. In 2008, I was the faculty sponsor for WFM Bayaraa Zorigt and Amy Lehman. Zorigt's research resulted in a comprehensive history of the UTD Chess Program. Lehman's research about chess at hundreds of colleges and universities became an appendix in my book People, Places, Checkmates: Teaching Social Studies with Chess(Teacher Ideas Press, 2010). Zorigt and Lehman were students in Chess Online courses; Zorigt and Nath are members of the UTD chess team.